Deviance: Social Constructions and Blurred Boundaries / Edition 1

by Leon Anderson

Overview

Deviance: Social Constructions and Blurred Boundaries draws on up-to-date scholarship across a wide spectrum of deviance categories, providing a symbolic interactionist analysis of the deviance process. The book addresses positivistic theories of deviant behavior within a description of the deviance process that encompasses the work of deviance claims-makers, rule-breakers, and social control agents.

Students:

• are introduced to the sociology of deviance
• learn to analyze several kinds of criminal deviance that involve unwilling victims--such as murder, rape, street-level property crime, and white-collar crime
• learn to examine several categories of "lifestyle" and "status" deviance
• develop skills for critical analysis of criminal justice and social policies

Overall, students gain an understanding of the sociology of deviance through cross-cultural comparisons, historical overview of deviance in the U.S., and up-close analysis of the lived experience of those who are labeled deviant as well as responses to them in the U.S. today.

Instructor Resources are available to easily help with lecture and exam preparation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520292376
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	08/22/2017
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	966,194
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Leon Anderson is Professor of Sociology at Utah State University. He is coauthor of Down on Their Luck and Analyzing Social Settings, 4th Edition. Before arriving at Utah State University, he was on the faculty at Ohio University. He has served as chair of the Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology at Utah State and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ohio University. He is best known for his collaborative research on homelessness and for his expertise in qualitative research methods.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Views of Deviance

CONTENTS

Introduction Blurred Boundaries: The Drama of Deviance Deviance as Demonic Deviance as Psychotic Deviance as Exotic Deviance as Symbolic Interaction: A Sociological Approach Social Acts Focus on Observable Behavior Symbolic Interaction The Sociological Promise Summary Keywords

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

* Define deviance in sociological terms

* Recognize "blurred boundaries" as a key feature of deviance

* Describe three "popular" explanations of deviance

* Explain the sociological approach to studying deviance

* Summarize the importance of a sociological understanding of deviance

INTRODUCTION

Virtually all humans make distinctions between right and wrong, good and bad, normal and weird. It is hard to imagine that we could be human — or survive as a species — without making such distinctions. The sociology of deviance is devoted to studying the "bad," "wrong," and "weird" side of these divisions: what people consider immoral, criminal, strange, and disgusting. Deviance includes the broadest possible scope of such activities — not just criminal acts, but also any actions, thoughts, feelings, or social statuses that members of a social group judge to be a violation of their values or rules. This book provides a sociological understanding of deviance, as well as examines many of the major categories of deviance in contemporary American society.

Few things in life touch such sensitive nerves as seeing or hearing about things we consider deviant. Our blood rises, our tempers flare, we are flooded with disgust, and we often find ourselves struggling to understand how anyone could do something so immoral or obscene. Even so, unless we have lived the most sheltered of lives, we also recognize that not everyone sees things the way we do. Some people approve of behaviors that we personally find reprehensible, and some acts that we personally enjoy or participate in may be considered reprehensible by others. Even when almost all of us agree that someone is deviant or has engaged in deviant behavior, we may find ourselves disagreeing about the reasons for their deviance. We may believe the person is evil, sick, inconsiderate, or just does not know better than to behave that way.

One of the key features of deviance is its blurred boundaries, the often hazy distinctions between what is considered good or bad, right or wrong, and the confusion that we face when we try to explain why. We can start our journey with a few examples that give a sense of the range of things that fall under the deviance umbrella. At first blush, each of the following cases is likely to seem crystal clear as a case of deviance. However, as we probe deeper, a disquieting realization that the boundaries that separate these acts and conditions from what some may consider acceptable becomes cloudier. Further, each case may be explained in radically different ways.

BLURRED BOUNDARIES: THE DRAMA OF DEVIANCE

First, consider the case of calculated, cold-blooded murder as related by a professional "hit man" explaining his "craft" compared to murders that occur in the heat of the moment. "There are people who will go ape for one minute and shoot," he says, "but there are very few people who are capable of thinking about, planning, and then doing it." He continues:

There are three things you need to kill a man: the gun, the bullets, and the balls. A lot of people will point a gun at you, but they haven't got the courage to pull the trigger. It's as simple as that. It may be that some are born with "heart," while others acquire it. But you can't let feelings get in the way. Take my last hit: The victim began to beg. He went so far as to tell us where he had stashed his money. Finally, he realized there was absolutely nothing he could do. He sat there quietly. Then, he started crying. I didn't feel a thing for him.

— Joey (1973 p.56)

The second case involves a form of child sex abuse that, hidden for decades, has become well documented in recent years: sexual relations between some Catholic priests and children, as illustrated by one young man's experience:

Ed's abuse began as a condition of absolution. The youth confessed to impure thoughts and to the sin of pride. Father Terrence directed him to learn self-control. The lesson was simple, Ed alleges: the priest would masturbate him, or lie on top of him rubbing their groins together, but would stop just shy of Ed's ejaculation. "Desensitization," Father Terrance called this ... Ed remembers Father Terrance telling him, "You are special. You are pleasing to God. But you have this corruptible side you must learn to control."

— Burkett and Bruni (1993, p.76)

Our third case comes from the world of professional baseball. During the 1998 season, a great sports rivalry unfolded as the Saint Louis Cardinals' Mark McGwire raced with the Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa to break the record for most home runs in a single season. Baseball audiences were electrified as they watched Sosa and McGwire exchange the lead. As they closed in on the new record, both players' accomplishments were undermined by revelations that they were using performance-enhancing drugs:

In late August 1998, Steve Wilstein, an Associated Press reporter, peered inside McGwire's locker and noticed a bottle of androstenedione, a pill that produced male hormone for the intended purpose of building muscle mass. Andro, as it was called, was a dietary supplement whose creation was designed to mimic a steroid. Confronted about the substance, McGwire admitted to using it. The news swept baseball like a prairie fire. Suddenly the home run chase was embroiled in scandal. The New York Times blared: "The News is Out: Popeye is Spiking His Spinach."

— Bryant (2005, p.134)

While these examples of deviance involve illegal or illicit actions, the field of deviance also includes a variety of socially unacceptable or stigmatized conditions or statuses. One commonly stigmatized condition in American culture is obesity. While many of us may feel that it is unfair to look down on those who are considered "fat," we are all aware of the self-consciousness that many heavy people feel and of shameful behaviors toward them, such as that captured in the following young woman's experience:

I was fat on this Saturday. I know how fat. I would let a torturer use pliers to pull teeth from the tender gums in the back of my head before I would say what I weigh when I'm fat. What I weigh seems like a secret that must be hid carefully. But what happened that Saturday was that a white Chrysler convertible, top down, sped south, toward me. Four boys were in the convertible, college boys is what they looked like ... A grin spread across the face of the boy in the front passenger seat and I knew what was coming. "Oink, oink, oink," he squealed. His companions joined him, "Oink, oink, oink." And a two-fingered high-pitched whistle and "Sooey, sooey, pig!" Then they were gone in the stream of traffic and I looked straight ahead and just kept walking. This was not the first time in my life that someone had called out to me, "Sooey, sooey, pig." I was used to being called names.

— Moore (2005, p.32)

Each of these examples illustrates part of the drama of deviance. Why do people engage in behaviors that are disapproved of and often punished? And why do they allow themselves to have a status that is widely looked down upon? Before we look at deviance from a sociological perspective, it is useful to consider some of the common ways deviance has been explained in human societies. Three popular explanations in particular provide useful comparisons. We can refer to these explanations of deviance as "the demonic," "the psychotic," and "the exotic."

Each of these views points to a different cause of deviant behavior. The demonic view argues that "the devil made him do it." The psychotic view proposes, "She did it because she was crazy." And the exotic view explains, "That kind of thing is okay where they come from."

How is it possible for things that we see as so clearly bad to be viewed in such different ways? This is one of the central questions of deviance at the blurred boundaries.

DEVIANCE AS DEMONIC

In the Bible, Eve (and then Adam) committed the first act of transgression against God by eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Here, early in Jewish and Christian scriptures, we see an example of perhaps the oldest explanation for deviance. Why did Eve deviate from the sacred rule of God? She did so because a demon, Satan in the form of a serpent, tempted her. Deviance, according to this view, is caused by demonic possession.

While other societies may have much different stories of creation and images of God or gods, many societies have held beliefs that evil acts and objectionable conditions are caused by malevolent, evil forces. Thus we find Loki, the Norse god of guile and deception; Eris, the Greek goddess of strife; and Native American myths of Trickster Coyote who seduced women — and men — and caused general discord as he conned his way across the countryside. Indeed, belief in evil spirits has been remarkably widespread. Some of the earliest known writings, those of Sumerian culture nearly 6,000 years ago, refer to demons called gid-dim — demons believed to cause mental problems and disordered behavior. Zoroastrianism (a Middle Eastern religion in the millennium before the Christian era) proclaimed that the evil god, Angra Mainyu, ensnared humans in sinful lust through his witchcraft. And numerous more localized folk beliefs have attributed individuals' bad and unusual behaviors to becoming possessed by malevolent spirits that inhabited the woodlands, marshes, and animals in their worlds.

The most extreme beliefs in demonic possession occurred in Europe in the Middle Ages, where from the early decades of the fifteenth century through the 1650s, an estimated 200,000 to half a million people, most of them women, were burned at the stake, hung, or otherwise executed for being witches (Goode and Ben-Yehuda 2009, p.144). In 1487, two Dominican priests published what was to become the key text for witch hunting for the next two centuries. Their book, Malleus Maleficarum ("The Witch's Hammer"), claimed that Europe was experiencing an epidemic of women conspiring with Satan against God. When women lost their virginity, the priests argued, they became obsessed with sexual desires, thus making it easy for the Devil, in the form of an incubus (a demon in human form), to seduce them. Once seduced by Satan, women became witches and turned to sorcery (rituals to cause supernatural effects) and heresy — devil worshipping and antireligious practices such as the "Black Sabbath" or inverted Mass (portrayed in the sixteenth-century wood engraving at the start of this chapter, titled Witches' Sabbath, by German artist Hans Baldung Grien). In the American colonies, on a smaller scale, the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 dramatically played out the belief in the demonic possession of witches, culminating in the imprisonment of nearly 200 Salem residents and the hanging of 20 of them.

Beliefs about the paths by which people become possessed by demons vary from culture to culture. In some, individuals who are out after dark are thought to fall prey to evil-spirited night animals such as owls or cats. In Europe during the Middle Ages, as we have seen, women were believed to be sexually seduced into conspiring with the devil. In the early twentieth century in the United States, popular Protestant evangelist Billy Sunday preached that men, not women, were the most vulnerable to the devil's wiles, and that liquor, not sex, was the means by which he ensnared them. In his famous sermon, "The Devil's Boomerangs," Sunday proclaimed:

Listen! Seventy-five per cent of our idiots come from intemperate parents, 80 per cent of the paupers, 82 per cent of the crime is committed by men under the influence of liquor, 90 per cent of the adult criminals are whiskey made. The saloon is the sum of all villainies. It is worse than war or pestilence. It is the crime of crimes. It is parent of crimes and the mother of sins. It is the appalling source of misery and crime in the land and the principal cause of crime. The devil doesn't let a man stop to think what he is doing, that in every added indulgence in a drink he grows weaker.

— Sunday (1920)

As we will see later, Billy Sunday's sermon's on "demon rum" struck a responsive chord in the era leading to Prohibition, winning him many followers — as well as many enemies. But even many who did not accept Sunday's message were enthralled by his preaching style — a dramatic and compelling fight with the devil that has yet to be matched by even the most dramatic televangelists.

It is easy, perhaps, for most of us to discount beliefs in demonic causes of deviance when they come from cultures far from our own. In fact, many Americans today discount belief in demons and Satanic forces entirely, preferring more secular explanations for deviance. Of course, many other Americans continue to believe that the devil is a real force in the world today. Whatever your personal beliefs, it is clear to see how demonic explanations could provide one kind of answer to the question of why people engage in deviance. Consider each of the cases with which we started the chapter.

The professional hit man's willingness to kill for money, his affiliation with an underworld of crime and corruption, and his stone cold heart as he pulls the trigger to end another person's life all seem to locate him squarely in the devil's dominion. Similarly, a priest who takes advantage of his sacred authority to trick a child into sexually gratifying him can be seen as having fallen prey to the devil's "temptations of the flesh." In comparison to the hit man and the pedophile priest, a professional athlete's willingness to cheat by using illicit performance-enhancing drugs may seem relatively mild. But greed for fame and personal gain has long been associated with the devil. One of the most enduring legends in American folk culture tells of the great blues singer, Robert Johnson, selling his soul to the Devil in exchange for a superb ability to play guitar. The parallel to Mark McGwire's and Sammy Sosa's use of illicit drugs to excel in professional baseball is obvious.

Finally, we have the case of the overweight young woman. At first glance, it might seem difficult to conceive of her deviance as inspired by demonic forces. And yet, gluttony, or the sin of overindulgence, was considered one of the seven cardinal, or deadly, sins of early Christianity. Like sexual desire and greed, it was one of Satan's temptations, to be resisted by those seeking God's salvation. In his letters to the Philippians, Paul counsels against the sin of overeating, writing of those who overindulge that "their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame" (Philippians 3:19). Even today, the language of sin and temptation permeates our talk about food, as "sinfully delicious" and "temptingly tasty." And, as we will see later in this book, "fat" people are often stereotyped as weak willed and lacking moral discipline.

DEVIANCE AS PSYCHOTIC

The belief that evil forces or demons cause deviance has persisted over thousands of years, making it the longest-lasting explanation of deviance in human history. But today, in America, evil is a less pervasive explanation of deviance than in the past. In the US and other modern western cultures, the most common explanation for many forms of deviance is illness — specifically, mental illness of one kind or another. In popular terms (as opposed to precise medical definitions), we can refer to this view of deviance as psychotic.

Medical explanations for objectionable behaviors and conditions are not new, but they expanded enormously in their influence during the twentieth century, in tandem with the rise of medical science in general, and psychiatry in particular. Psychology courses titled "Abnormal Psychology" exemplify this kind of explanation. Broadly speaking, abnormal psychology scholars explain mental disorders and deviance as caused by either biological defects or problematic psychological development. Behavioral genetics, for instance, is widely discussed among psychologists and psychiatrists as a cause of "such diverse disorders as schizophrenia, depression, criminality, and mental retardation" (Sarason and Sarason 2005, p.53). Alternatively, psychological theories of abnormality may focus on problematic psychological development resulting from traumatic experiences or unresolved psychological conflicts. In each of these explanations, whether due to defective genetics or unhealthy psychological development, deviant behavior is a sign of sickness.

(Continues…)

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Table of Contents

Contents
Preface

Chapter 1: Views of Deviance
Introduction
Blurred Boundaries: The Drama of Deviance
Deviance as Demonic
Deviance as Psychotic
Deviance as Exotic
Deviance as Symbolic Interaction: A Sociological Approach
Social Acts
Focus on Observable Behavior
Symbolic Interaction
The Sociological Promise
Summary
Keywords

Chapter 2: Getting Close to Deviance
Blurred Boundaries I: Getting Close to Deviance
Sociology as a Mode of Inquiry
Counting Deviants
Value of Surveys and Official Statistics
Limitations of Official Statistics
Counting Rape and Sexual Assault
Official Statistics as Organizational Processes
Summing Up the Numbers
Challenges of Deviance Ethnography
Focus of Deviance Ethnography
Gaining Access
Getting People to Open Up
Fieldwork Roles
Getting Along in the Field
Collecting Data
Narrative Analysis
Understanding Social Worlds Different from Our Own
Getting the Big Picture: Sociohistorical Comparison
Blurred Boundaries II: How Close is too Close?
Summary
Keywords

Chapter 3: Positivistic Theories of Deviant Behavior
Blurred Boundaries I: Why is Mike in Jail?
Introduction to Positivistic Theories
Biological Theories of Deviance
Lombroso’s Italian School of Positivist Criminology
Biological Theories in Twentieth-Century America
Critique and Further Directions
Social Structural Theories
Social Disorganization Theory
Critique and Further Directions
Anomie Theory
Durkheim’s “Anomie”
Merton’s “Social Structure and Anomie”
Critique and Further Directions
Socialization Theories
Differential Association Theory
Sutherland’s Key Principles
Critique and Further Directions
Social Learning Theory
Critical Evaluation
Social Control Theories
Social Bond Theory
Self-Control Theory
Critical Evaluation
Blurred Boundaries II: “Influences” versus “Causes”
Summary
Keywords

Chapter 4: Symbolic Interactionist/Social Constructionist Perspective
Blurred Boundaries I: Consensus and Conflict in Constructing Deviants
The Roots of Symbolic Interaction: The Social Self
Labeling Theory and Social Construction
Social Construction of Deviance Categories
Resource Mobilization and Deviance Framing
Resource Mobilization
Deviance Framing
Credibility
Atrocity Tales
Cultural Resonance
Initial Rule-Breaking and Primary Deviance
Primary versus Secondary Deviance
Biography and Effective Environment
Techniques of Neutralization
The Roles of Others
Turning On
Limits of Voluntary Choice
Processing Deviants
Stereotyping and Master Statuses
Institutionalizing Deviance
Typifications and Recipe Knowledge
Stigmatization and Resistance
Stigmatization and Role Engulfment
Stigma Management and Resistance
Stigma Management among the Discreditable
Stigma Management among the Discredited
In-Group Stigma Management
Blurred Boundaries II: Framing Surprising Alliances
Summary
Keywords

Chapter 5: Murder
Blurred Boundaries I: Two Convicted Murderers
Current Constructions of Murder in the United States
Types of Murder
Statistical Snapshot
Challenges in Researching Murder
Counting Murder
Getting Close
Cross-Cultural Constructions of Murder
Different Definitions
Different “Causes”
Different Responses
History of Murder in the United States
Early America
Whites and Native Americans
Whites and Slaves
White-on-White Murder
Civil War to World War I
Post-World War II
Landscape of Murder in the New Millennium
Social Capital and Homicide
Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices
Character Contests: Six Stages
Stage One: Personal Offense
Stage Two: Assessment
Stage Three: Retaliation
Stage Four: Working Agreement
Stage Five: Battle
Stage Six: Resolution
Contemporary Responses to Murder
Punitive Responses
Contextual Responses
Stigma Management and Resistance
Blurred Boundaries II: Is Assisted Suicide Murder?
Summary
Keywords

Chapter 6: Rape
Blurred Boundaries I: Two Sexual Assaults
Current Constructions of Rape in the United States
Types of Rape
Statistical Snapshot
Challenges in Researching Rape
Counting Rape
Getting Close
Cross-Cultural Constructions of Rape
Different Definitions
Different “Causes”
Different Responses
History of Rape in the United States
Early America
Post-Civil War Era
Feminist Era: 1960s–Present
Rape Proclivity and Routine Activity Theories
Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices
Stranger Rape
Phase One: Preexisting Life Tensions
Phase Two: Transformation of Motivation into Action
Phase Three: Perpetrator–Victim Confrontation
Phase Four: Situation Management
Phase Five: Disengagement
Party Rape
Contemporary Responses to Rape
Identifying and Processing Rapists
Treatment of Rape in the Courts
Stigma Management and Resistance
Blurred Boundaries II: What is Too Drunk to Say Yes?
Summary
Keywords

Chapter 7: Financially Motivated Crime in the Streets
Blurred Boundaries I: Two Thieves
Current Constructions of Street-level Property Crimes in the United States
Types of Street-level Property Crime
Statistical Snapshot
Challenges in Researching Street-level Property Crimes
Counting Street-level Property Crime
Getting Close
Cross-Cultural Constructions of Street-level Property Crime
Different Definitions
Different “Causes”
Different Response
History of Street-level Property Crimes in the United States
Merton’s Social Structure and Anomie
Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices
Contemporary Responses to Street-level Property Crime
Stigma Management and Resistance
Blurred Boundaries II: A College Education for Prisoners?
Summary
Keywords

Chapter 8: White-Collar Crime
Blurred Boundaries I: Two White-Collar Crimes
Current Constructions of White-Collar Crimes in the United States
Types of White-Collar Crime
Statistical Snapshot
Challenges in Researching White-Collar Crime
Counting Crime in the Suites
Getting Close
Cross-Cultural Constructions of White-Collar Crime
Different Definitions
Different “Causes”
Different Responses
History of White-Collar Crime in the United States
Rise of the Robber Barons
Progressive Era and Regulatory Control
White-Collar Crime in the United States Today
Merton’s Social Structure and Anomie
Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices
Contemporary Responses to White-Collar Crime
Stigma Management and Resistance
Blurred Boundaries II: Should Michael Milken Get a Presidential Pardon?
Summary
Keywords

Chapter 9: Alcohol Abuse
Blurred Boundaries I: Two Faces of Problem Drinking
Current Constructions of Alcohol Abuse in the United States
Types of Alcohol Abusers
Statistical Snapshot
Challenges in Researching Alcohol Abuse
Counting Alcohol Abuse
Getting Close
Cross-Cultural Constructions of Alcohol Abuse
Different Definitions
Different “Causes”
Different Responses
History of Problem Drinking in the United States
Pioneer America
The Road to Prohibition
The Medicalization of Problem Drinking
The Age of Ambivalence
Social Learning Theory and Alcohol Abuse
Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices
College Binge Drinker
The Alcoholic
Drunk Drivers
Contemporary Responses to Problem Drinking
Punitive/Treatment Response
Contextual Responses
Stigma Management and Resistance
In-Group Strategies
Out-Group Strategies
Alcoholics Anonymous and Identity Transformation
Blurred Boundaries II: Contextual Responses to College Drinking
Summary
Keywords

Chapter 10: Drug Abuse
Blurred Boundaries I: Two Drug Abusers
Current Constructions of Drug Abuse in the United States
Types of Drug Use and Abuse
Statistical Snapshot
Challenges in Researching Drug Abuse
Counting Illegal Drug Use
Getting Close
Cross-Cultural Constructions of Drug Abuse
Different Definitions
Different “Causes”
Different Responses
History of Drug Abuse in the United States
Unregulated Early America
Road to Punitive Prohibition
The War on Drugs
Social Learning Theory and Drug Abuse
Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices
Marijuana
Hard “Street” Drugs
Contemporary Responses to Drug Abuse
Punitive Prohibition and Reducing Supply
Drug Courts
Harm Reduction
Stigma Management and Resistance
In-Group Stigma Management
Out-Group Stigma Management
Collective Action
Blurred Boundaries II: Is It Time to Legalize Drugs?
Summary
Keywords

Chapter 11: Sex Work
Blurred Boundaries I: The Street Prostitute and the Playboy College Girl
Current Constructions of Sex Work and Pornography in the United States
Types of Sex Work
Statistical Snapshot
Challenges in Researching Sex Work
Counting Sex Work
Getting Close
Cross-Cultural Constructions of Sex Work
Different Definitions
Different “Causes”
Different Responses
History of Sex Work in the United States
Antebellum America and the Wild West
The Gilded Age of US Prostitution
The Great Social Evil
The Internet Era
Merton’s Anomie and Social Learning Theories
Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices
Prostitution
Street Prostitution
Massage Parlors and Brothels
Escort Services
Dancing for Dollars
Oppression and Empowerment Paradigms
Contemporary Responses to Sex Work
Policing Prostitution
Rehabilitation Programs
Legalization and Regulation
Stigma Management and Resistance
Techniques of Neutralization
Living in the Closet
Stigma Management with Customers
Mutual Support
Coming Out of the Closet and Collective Action
Blurred Boundaries II: The John Shaming Debate
Summary
Keywords

Chapter 12: Mental Illness
Blurred Boundaries I: Two Faces of Mental Illness
Current Constructions of Mental Illness in the United States
Statistical Snapshot
Challenges in Researching Mental Illness
Counting Mentally Illness
Getting Close
Cross-Cultural Constructions of Mental Illness
Different Definitions
Different “Causes”
Different Treatments
History of Mental Illness in the United States
Era of the Asylum
Deinstitutionalization Era
Antidepressant Era
Social Stress Theory
Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices
Alienation from Place
Definitive Outburst
Help-Seeking
The Medication Experience
Depression and Medication
Schizophrenia and Medication
Hospitalization
Contemporary Responses to Mental Illness
Community Care?
Criminalization of Mental Illness
Mental Health Courts
Stigma Management and Resistance
In-Group Stigma Management
Out-Group Strategies
Collective Action
Blurred Boundaries II: A Hyper Child of Your Own
Summary
Keywords

Chapter 13: Obesity and Eating Disorders
Blurred Boundaries I: Two “Fat” People
Current Constructions of Obesity and Eating Disorders in the United States
Types of Obesity and Eating Disorders
Statistical Snapshot
Challenges in Researching Obesity and Eating Disorders
Counting Obesity and Eating Disorders
Getting Close
Cross-Cultural Constructions of Obesity and Eating Disorders
Different Definitions
Different “Causes”
Different Responses
History of Obesity and Eating Disorders in the United States
Colonial America
Rise of the Antifat Campaign
Fat in the Feminist Era
Calories In-Calories Out and Self-Control Theory
Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices
Dieting and Fitness Programs
Facing Failure
The Costs of Weight Obsession
Contemporary Responses to Obesity
Weight-Loss and Fitness Industry
Medical Drugs
Surgery
Social Policy and Government Regulation
Stigma Management and Resistance
Weight-Loss Support Groups
Challenging Frames
Blurred Boundaries II: Banning Weight Discrimination in the Workplace
Summary
Keywords

Chapter 14: LGBTQ Identities
Blurred Boundaries: Two Stories of Same-Sex Attraction
Current Constructions of LGBTQ Identities in the United States
Statistical Snapshot
Challenges in LGBTQ Research
Counting LGBTQ Identities and Sexual Behavior
Getting Close
Cross-Cultural LGBTQ Constructions
Different Definitions
Different “Causes”
Different Responses
LGBTQ History in the United States
Early American Secrecy
1890s to World War II
The Cold War on Homosexuals
Era of Collective Action and Conservative Responses
A Post-Gay Era?
The Limits of Positivistic Approaches
Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices
Straight Gay Sex Today
Coming Out
Contemporary Responses to LGBTQ Issues
Stigma Management and Resistance
Blurred Boundaries II: “Gay” or “Straight”?
Summary
Keywords

References

Editorial Reviews

"[S]tudents who engage with this textbook can expect to establish a critical perspective of deviance and develop a theoretical understanding that will serve them well even beyond deviance studies."

Teaching Sociology